Akira Toriyama
Akira Toriyama (鳥山 明, Toriyama Akira; born on April 5, 1955, in Kiyosu, Aichi, Japan) is a widely known and acclaimed Japanese manga artist, known most famous for his Dragon Ball series that started in 1984. He married the shojo manga artist Nara Mikami''Dragon Ball: Bouken Special, 1987 (aka Yoshimi)Spouse listed as "Yoshimi" in ''Dr. Slump volume 18 in 1982, and has two children (a son named Sasuke, born in April 1987, and a daughter born in late 1990). Biography It is difficult to pinpoint the source of Toriyama's artwork inspiration. He admires Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy and was impressed by Walt Disney's One Hundred and One Dalmatians, which he remembers for the great art. Jackie Chan's Drunken Master movie also influenced him greatly. Akira Toriyama has also stated that he is a fan of the Star Wars series. Also, his second manga, Mysterious Rain Jack (1978), is a Star Wars parody, and the Star Wars characters R2-D2 and a Stormtrooper appear in Dr. Slump chapter 14, and other Star Wars characters appear on the cover of Dr. Slump chapters 16, 25, 29. Akira Toriyama's first published manga is Wonder Island, published in the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine n°52 in 1978, and he first gained fame for his manga Dr. Slump, published in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1980 to 1984. Dragon Ball was published from 1984 to 1995. The success from his very well known ''Dragon Ball'' franchise "forced" Akira Toriyama to work on Dragon Ball from 1984 to 1995. During that time, he made 519 chapters, collected into 42 volumes. Each volume has an average of 200 pages, so the entire Dragon Ball storyline extends to almost 9,000 pages. All of the 42 volumes of the manga contain certain Cover Flap images that reference Toriyama's real life. Most of the images contain drawings of an animated Toriyama, busy creating new manga ideas, or frustrated at not knowing any. Additionally, a few Cover Flap images are real-life pictures of him, his possible pets and his children. The success of Dragon Ball led to three animated television series (Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT), feature-length animated movies, and video games. Unlike Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT was not based on Akira Toriyama's original manga, instead being created by Toei Animation and Toriyama as a sequel. During his career, Toriyama had three editors for his manga series: Kazuhiko Torishima who is the man that discovered Toriyama and worked with him for Dr. Slump and the first half of the Dragon Ball manga, Yū Kondō who was involved with Dragon Ball during its most popular times, and Fuyuto Takeda who took over the position during the Perfect Cell Saga and also served as Toriyama's editor for post-''Dragon Ball'' works. Akira Toriyama had only two assistants during his career: Hisashi Tanaka who worked on the first half of Dr. Slump and Takashi Matsuyama who was Toriyama's assistant for the second half of Dr. Slump, the whole Dragon Ball manga and post-''Dragon Ball'' works. His works after Dragon Ball tend to be short (100-200 page) stories, including Cowa!, Kajika, and Sandland, as well as one-shots, like the gag manga Neko Majin. During his career, Toriyama created over 40 manga series. Akira Toriyama's clean line and design sense led to jobs designing characters for the phenomenally popular Dragon Quest series of role-playing games (formerly called Dragon Warrior in North America). Toriyama has also served as the character designer for the Super Famicom RPG Chrono Trigger, the fighting game Tobal No. 1 for the PlayStation (as well as its sequel, Tobal 2, released only in Japan), and the Mistwalker Xbox 360 exclusive RPG Blue Dragon. Bird Studio Toriyama's studio is called Bird Studio, which is a play on his name, tori meaning "bird". Toriyama does almost all of the work in Bird Studio; his assistant does mostly backgrounds. The studio has not been very active after Dragon Ball, and has only done occasional one-shots. Manga *''Awawa World'' – Unreleased one-shot from 1977, in which two Samurai meet a Superman-like character. *''Mysterious Rain Jack'' – Unreleased one-shot from 1978, which is a Star Wars parody with the famous Inspector Harry Callahan as the main character. *''Wonder Island'' – Two part One-Shot released in 1978-1979. Notable for being Toriyama's first published manga and the debut of Gala, Pagos and Gyaosu who become recurring characters in his later work Dr. Slump. *''Today's Highlight Island'' – One-Shot released in 1979. *''Tomato'' – One-Shot released in 1979. Notable for being the debut of Sourman, although he only appears in his secret identity Kenta Kuraaku. *''Dr. Slump'' – The first major series created by Toriyama that ran from 1980-1984 spawning 18 volumes. The characters and setting appear in Dragon Ball. *''Escape'' – One-Shot released in 1981. The female protagonist and an anthropomorphic character from this one-shot appear in the Dragon Ball episode "Prelude to Vengeance". *''Pola & Roid'' – One-Shot released in 1981. King Nikochan and his assistant make cameo appearances in it. The main female character scares them off by dressing up as Arale Norimaki. *''Pink'' – One-Shot released in 1982. *''Mad Matic'' – One-Shot released in 1982. *''Chobit'' – Two part One-Shot released in 1983. *''Dragon Boy'' – Two part One-Shot released in 1983. Notable for being the proto-type of the Dragon Ball series. *''The Adventures of Tongpoo'' – Two part One-Shot released in 1983. Notable for introducing an early concept for the Capsule, as well as being the "prototype" for Dragon Ball chapter 2, "No Balls!". *''Dragon Ball'' – The most well known series by Toriyama that started in 1984 and went all the way to 1995 spawning 42 volumes. *''Mr. Ho'' – One-Shot released in 1986. *''Lady Red'' – Four part One-Shot released in 1987. *''Kennosuke-sama'' – One-Shot released in 1987. *''Sonchoh'' – One-Shot released in 1987. *''Mamejiro'' – One-Shot released in 1988. *''Karamaru'' – One-Shot released in 1989. *''Wolf'' – One-Shot released in 1990. *''Cashman - Saving Soldier'' – Three part One-Shot released in 1991. *''Dub & Peter 1'' – Four part One-Shot released in 1992. *''Go!Go!Ackman'' – 11 part One-Shot released in 1993. *''Dr. Slump Returns, But Only For a Little While'' – Four volume sequel to Dr. Slump that was made by Takao Koyama and Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, and that ran from 1994-1996. Goku makes an appearance in this series. *''Tokimecha'' – One-Shot released in 1996. *''Alien X-Peke'' – One-Shot released in 1997. *''Bubul'' – One-Shot released in 1997. *''Cowa!'' – One volume series that started in 1997 and ended in 1998. *''New Cashman Saving Soldier'' – One volume sequel to Cashman - Saving Soldier released in 1998. Made by Takao Koyama and Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, and supervised by Toriyama. *''Tahi Mahi'' – One-Shot released in 1998. *''Kajika'' – One volume series that ran in 1998. *''Neko Majin'' – A comedy manga that ran from 1999-2005. Characters from the Dragon Ball series make appearances. *''Hyowtam'' – One-Shot released in 2000. *''Sand Land'' – One volume series that ran in 2000. *''KochiKame'' – One-Shot released in 2006. *''Cross Epoch'' – One-Shot crossover between Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball and Eiichiro Oda's One Piece released in 2006. *''Dr. Mashirito Abale-chan'' – One-Shot about Dr. Mashirito Jr., the son of the Dr. Slump's antagonist Dr. Mashirito, released in 2007. *''Sachi-chan Gū!!'' – One-Shot released in 2008. *''Jiya'' – Three part One-Shot that ran from 2009-2010. *''Kintoki'' – One-Shot released in 2010. Quotes Trivia *Akira Toriyama created a character based off himself called Tori-Bot that made few appearances in the early parts of the ''Dragon Ball manga, in the Dragon Ball Z TV series and movies, and in Dragon Ball GT. Before using the Tori-Bot, Toriyama drew himself as an anthropomorphic bird (as tori means "bird" in Japanese). *He has stated that his favorite character in Dragon Ball is Piccolo, and that his favorite movie/special was Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku. *In an interview conducted in 2007 with Shōnen Jump, Akira Toriyama revealed that he does not consider what is to occur in proceeding chapters of his stories. Gallery Photos Manga Cover Flap images Autographs References External links *Akira Toriyama's biography (French) *[http://www.kanzentai.com/trans-db_bouken.php?m=01&id=toriyama#link Bouken Special Q&A with Toriyama] (English) Category:Real people Category:Dragon Ball Category:Dragon Ball Z Category:Manga Artists